More than half of toddlers can use tablets when they are just 1

While parents may struggle to use the latest in technology, toddlers have no such problem, Daily Mail reports.

Researchers have analysed hundreds of videos of babies trying, and quickly mastering, technology.

They found half of toddlers can use an iPad when they are just one, with 90 percent mastering the gadget by their second birthday. The researchers admit they were stunned by the results. The team of University of Iowa researchers set out to study more than 200 YouTube videos.

"By age two, 90 percent of the children in the videos had a moderate ability to use a tablet," said Juan Pablo Hourcade, associate professor of computer science in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and lead author of the study.

"Just over 50 percent of 12-to-17-month-old children in the videos had a moderate ability."

Hundreds of YouTube videos showing babies trying, and quickly mastering the iPad were watched.

Their paper is published in the proceedings of the CHI 2015 conference, the most prestigious in the field of human-computer interaction.

In the paper they write that their goal was to "provide a window into how these children are using tablets through an analysis of relevant YouTube videos".

What they found was information that supports "opportunities for research and starting points for design".

Hourcade and his colleagues defined 'moderate ability' as needing help from an adult to access apps, but being able to use them while displaying some difficulty with basic interactions.

He says that to his knowledge, other researchers have conducted surveys of the prevalence of tablet use by young children, however, the UI study is the first to study how infants and toddlers are actually using the devices. 

Source: More than half of toddlers can use tablets when they are just 1